My thinking on the issue of reproductive freedom has not been well-defined other than through a desire that people not create unwanted babies, nor bring children into a violent and/or neglectful home environment.

But today, reading the above-linked article sparked something in me about freedom, and being free. After all, this is America, “land of the free….” Or is that freedom, as the Eagles put it so beautifully in “Desperado,” just some people talkin’?

As I have said before, I am using the phrase “What would the bonobos do?” to help guide my thinking on the tough topics in life because the bonobos have the most successful society of any of the chimpanzees, including us, when it comes to interpersonal relations.

Bonobos do NOT keep track of paternity. Paternity is obscured as the males and females all have multiple sex partners of either gender as a matter of course. It seems that when creatures keep track of who belongs to whom and do not allow each other their respective individual freedom, violence occurs, as seen in humans and in the common chimpanzee. I consider that type of tracking to itself be violent.

“No, bonobos do not have abortions, but neither do they have male rule over female bodies. The females do not allow it, and neither should we.”

The bonobos have a society that is free of murder, war, child abuse, and parent-child incest. The bonobo females bond together to prevent rape. Every member of bonobo society is sexual, not split into “heterosexual” or “homosexual” due to prejudices against the full spectrum of sexuality, prejudices that create repression which feeds the cycle of violence in human society. In bonobo society, non-reproductive sexuality is a meaningful, pleasurable part of life that bonds individuals and communities together in ways that create harmony, and of course, no fetuses are created or harmed by this.

Is it just that having a peaceful society would mean that politicians and the military-type institutions we have in place would need to find other occupations? Is that why we continue this seemingly never ending cycle of abuse against ourselves, of curtailing our freedoms? It’s time we re-envision the purpose and goals of our institutions to work better with the creatures we are.